Pinocchio Pizzeria vs. Pizza Amore

Welcome to week 7 of the Valley Pizza Challenge, and our third week of round 2! This week sees Pinocchio Pizzeria and Pizza Amore mixing it up, with the former known for its creative slices and the latter known for their great pitas. Pizza Amore won its first round contest against Domino’s Pizza to move on to the quarter finals and though it was no slouch, Domino’s didn’t put up much of a fight.

Here are the current standings:

Pinocchio Pizzeria

Right out in the open on Main St.

I’ve been enjoying slices from Pinocchio Pizzeria for years. If you’ve been to Antonio’s in Easthampton or Amherst you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. They are a great place to walk in to when you’re out and about in Northampton, and they serve their pizza by the slice at good prices.

Pizza Amore

You can check out our earlier Pizza Amore review against Domino’s. It is a Greek-owned pizza joint that makes decent pizza and delicious pitas. They’re in a nice quiet spot on Green Street, very conveniently close to Smith College.

The Pizza

Today we went with half-eggplant/half-cheese for our toppings, and the eggplant turned out to be a really interesting choice. This week both pizzas looked very similar, something that I’ve found to be pretty rare in this competition!. Not only did the pizzas look similar but they had the same exact box as well!

Pizza Amore on the left, Pinocchio Pizzeria on the right.

The Crust

Both crusts are fairly similar, and though the Pinocchio’s crust appears darker in the picture, both crusts were cooked well and were flavored well. However, the Pinocchio’s crust had better chew and a slightly better taste. The Amore crust was inoffensive but didn’t really have much to it. In this category we all voted for the Pinocchio’s pizza.

Winner: Pinocchio Pizzeria

The Flavor

Flavor was somewhat close between the two pizzas, though there were some subtle differences. The sauce on the Amore pie was pretty neutral and didn’t really provide much character, whereas the sauce on the Pinocchio pizza was a bit zippier and noticeable. We also noticed a slight aftertaste on the Amore pizza that wasn’t super pleasant. Overall we preferred Pinocchio Pizzeria, with three votes to one.

Winner: Pinocchio Pizzeria

The Toppings

As mentioned earlier, we got half-eggplant and half-cheese on these pizzas, and the eggplant was quite different on each pizza. The eggplant on the Pizza Amore pizza was breaded, fried, crispy, and delicious. It really brought the pizza together and when I bit into it I almost immediately called the contest for Pizza Amore, that’s how good it was. On the other hand, the eggplant on the Pinocchio’s pizza was thick, soggy, and disappointing, and almost enough to lose the challenge.

Winner Pizza Amore

Overall

If the Pizza Amore pie’s crust was a little chewier and there was a little bit brighter flavor, it would have run away with this challenge. That eggplant was just that good. But the crust and flavor wasn’t quite there, and Pinocchio’s was strong enough to overcome it’s own terrible eggplant implementation. So let’s get past the fact that the particular topping we got wasn’t implemented well by Pinocchio’s. We all agreed that it was the better pizza overall and it was our preferred pizza. But next time we will not be ordering it with eggplant.